"So now this outing is educational?" Jean laughed derisively.
"Well, YOU can try the method you just laid out, if you like. Given what happened on Monday, I imagine that total surrender is somewhat expected!" Candace snapped.
"Oh!" Jean glared at her two friends and strode off in a huff.
"What’s eating Jean, anyway?" Beth asked.
Candace sighed. "She thought she’d packed her pussy away in ice — but it turned out that it had its own heat source! Toby embarrassed the shit out of her; if HE could poke holes in her defenses like they were cheesecloth, just how good WERE they? She KNOWS that now that he’s been inside the walls, she won’t be able to keep him out — and she’s scared to death. On the other hand, her pussy remembers dick — fondly, I think."
"So she’s fighting herself."
"Uh huh. And her head’s having a lot of trouble with the idea that she’s cradle-robbing — but her pussy knows better!"
"Well, Toby is…" Beth began.
"Toby is fully capable of fucking her brains out!" Candace cut her off. "Wake up and smell the coffee, Hon! He’s every bit the horndog that Lon and Rick are!"
"But he’s my little boy!" Beth wailed.
"And THAT, Honey, is why he’s not fucking YOU!" Candace retorted. "Concentrate on the other two, and don’t worry about Toby — you’ll have your hands full…"
"The other TWO?" Beth assumed a deer in the headlights look.
"You weren’t paying any attention Tuesday, were you, Hon?" Candace chided. "If you play your cards right, Lon won’t be the only one scratching your itch…"
"Omigod!" Beth was shocked. Rick, too? Nah… "You make it sound like they’re going to line up to sleep with me," she sighed. "I’ll be lucky to attract one of them, once…"
"You underestimate yourself," Candace counseled. "I’m planning on doing both of mine at the same time, eventually — and you can, too, mark my words!"
"You WHAT?" Beth exclaimed. "Omigod!" That was just … nasty … She shivered, permutations and combinations flickering dimly in her imagination. "I, uh, think I’ll go check on Jean…"
"Well, don’t tell her THAT one," Candace advised, grinning. "She’ll totally freak!" Beth nodded and moved off, her head down, thinking. Jean was an excuse — she needed to play this thing in her head again and make sure she wasn’t screwing up…
Candace watched her go; the other two women could wander around working through their self-justifications all they wanted — SHE was going to get some dick! It was all very simple, really, when you quit being an idiot about it. Young guys fucked long, hard, and often, if you trained them right…
The boys thundered down the stairs a couple of minutes later, Lon and Toby moving quickly, Rick trailing, looking thoughtful. "Something wrong, Hon?" Candace asked.
"Mom’s … acting funny…"
"So you noticed."
"Yeah. I’m trying to get a handle on it," Rick grunted.
"She’s conflicted, Hon."
"Why?"
"She’s trying something she hasn’t done in a while — and she’s scared to death that she isn’t good enough at it to stay out of trouble," Candace advised.
"And that is?"
"Don’t kid me, Hon. You know the answer — men." Candace deliberately leveled the playing field. "It isn’t the first time since your Dad died — but the others were disasters. That can’t be increasing her confidence any…" She mused a bit. "Frankly, I don’t think she was EVER good at it…"
"Why now?" Rick wanted to know.
"Well, in the first place, because she got her nose rubbed in the fact that it was possible, I think," Candace replied. "That’s a pretty big ego booster — and hard to ignore, at our age. As for the other thing, the motherhood requirement is starting to peter out, isn’t it?" She eyed Rick archly.
Rick shrugged. Candace had a point; he was getting to be pretty independent. Back to the other thing… "It’s been years since Dad died … All this time, I never got a vibe. Now, suddenly…"
"Hon, guys and gals do sex differently," Candace advised. "There are exceptions, but in general, guys can do sex without any other complications, but gals … Well, for gals, it’s about mating. And mating isn’t JUST sex, although it can be big. Mating is about love, and motherhood, and nurturing … If the other things are going on, a woman can edit sex out of the equation, if she has to. When your Dad died, your mom felt she had to. Part of it was to make sure you got everything you needed — but part of it was fear; she was godawful at attracting men — and for no good reason, too! Look at the three of us! Which one could pass for a teenager?"
Rick nodded, pensive. "She needs it, right?"
"If she didn’t, she wouldn’t be out there exposing herself — literally AND figuratively!" Candace chuckled.
Rick eyed her. "No bullshit — you know about Monday, right?"
Candace was careful. "I know she wandered out on the deck in a bikini and you guys reminded her that she’s a woman…" She grinned. "I’d like to have seen that!" She looked outside through the slider; the other two males were standing in the foreground, eyeing the females from the rear as they stood at the grill, cooking. "This is a training wheels situation for your mother — nobody here is going to hurt her, and she’ll get a little confidence." She turned back to Rick. "You’re okay with it, right?"
"Yeah," Rick replied. "But I kind of got my nose rubbed in it — and it scared me. I never really thought about Mom…"
"As a woman?" Candace finished. "I think you’re the last one in your group to realize — and, well, it just points up your mother’s priorities…"
"Yeah."
"Let’s go outside." Candace wondered if she’d helped herself or hurt herself in this conversation; well, time would tell…
"Huh! Look at that! Except for the little strap around her waist, you can’t even SEE that thing in the back!" Toby whispered. The guys had stopped just a couple of feet outside the slider to take in the women’s outfits from the rear.
"That’s a cute little ass, too!" Lon whispered back.
"Not like Ma’s…" Toby eyed Lon sidelong.
"Contrast," Lon replied. "Each of 'em has their own things going for 'em. Your mama wouldn’t look good with a little tiny ass. I see she went for some exposure, though."
"Too much?" Toby asked.
"Nah," Lon replied. "Pretty sensible, actually. Nice. I bet she looks good in just skin, too…"
Toby eyed Lon sidelong. Maybe he WAS going to be decent to Ma… "Let’s circle around front and get the full effect."
"I’m with you, Man," Lon replied, stepping off. Rick hadn’t come out yet — maybe he was working Mama a bit in privacy … Lon figured that Rick was going to have an easy time of it, if Mama could bring herself to take him seriously; she really WAS into the young stuff. The big problem with the other two would be keeping them from chickening out … This was one big game of chicken — they were all headed straight at each other, and everyone was waiting to see who hit the ditch…
They’d set up the barbeque just a few feet beyond the awning that extended from the house out over the patio, a bit to the left of the slider; Getting around front was going to be a bit more difficult since there weren’t a whole lot of excuses for getting between the grill and the pool. Jumping into the pool would put them out there, but down low — not the best vantage point. As a result, they slowed to a stop in the vicinity of the folding table set up for condiments and such to the right of the grill. Lon fiddled with the hamburger buns for a second, trying to figure out how to reposition without making the whole thing obvious.